WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Washington is deploying an aircraft carrier strike group to counter drug-trafficking organisations in Latin America, the Pentagon said Friday, a major increase to a military buildup in the region that is fueling fears of war.

United States (US) President Donald Trump — who campaigned on a promise of ending foreign military interventions — launched a military campaign targeting boats allegedly used to smuggle narcotics in early September, destroying at least 10 vessels in a series of strikes.

But the American military buildup as part of that campaign — including 10 F-35 stealth warplanes and eight US Navy ships — has sparked fears in Venezuela that Washington’s ultimate goal is the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro, and the decision to send the carrier is certain to add to those concerns.

The deployment of the USS Gerald R Ford and accompanying ships “will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, referring to transnational criminal organisations.

The announcement came after Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said an overnight strike on a boat alleged to be operated by Venezuelan drug trafficking gang Tren de Aragua killed six people in the Caribbean Sea.

Hegseth announced the strike in a post on X showing a stationary boat with outboard engines being destroyed in an explosion, saying: “Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters — and was the first strike at night.”

“If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda. Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you,” Hegseth added.

The latest military action brings the death toll from the US strikes to at least 43, according to an AFP tally based on US figures, but Washington has yet to release evidence that its targets were smuggling narcotics.

“Under international human rights law, the intentional use of lethal force is only permissible as a measure of last resort against an individual representing an imminent threat to life,” UN rights office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado Gomez told AFP Friday, when asked to comment on the strikes.

“Otherwise, it would constitute a violation of the right to life,” she said, adding: “Generally speaking, no one should be killed for drug-related offences.”

Regional tensions have flared as a result of the campaign, with Venezuela accusing the United States of plotting to overthrow Maduro, who said earlier this week that his country has 5,000 Russian man-portable surface-to-air missiles to counter US forces.

On Thursday, at least one US B-1B bomber flew over the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela, flight tracking data showed.

That followed a show of force by multiple US B-52 bombers that circled off Venezuela’s coast last week, in what the US military said was a mission “to proactively deter adversary threats, enhance crew training, and ensure the global force readiness necessary.”

Regional powerhouse Brazil views a US military intervention in Venezuela as unacceptable and fears it could be damaging for the whole of South America, a senior foreign policy adviser told AFP on Thursday.

“We cannot accept an outside intervention because it will trigger immense resentment,” said Celso Amorim, aide to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. “It could inflame South America and lead to radicalisation of politics on the whole continent.”

Trump, meanwhile, said Thursday that he did not need a declaration of war from US lawmakers to attack Venezuela or other countries he accuses of involvement in the drug trade, warning that strikes on land are coming.

“The land is going to be next,” Trump said, likening drug cartels to the brutal Islamic State jihadist group.